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Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Wednesday Review: Wings over New Orleans

You most likely visit this blog because you enjoy seeing uncommon photos of the Beatles and reading the stories of people who met the Beatles. Some of my favorite photos and stories of Paul McCartney have came from the time Paul, Linda and Wings went to New Orleans, Louisiana to record the "Venus and Mars" album. Paul and crew just really seemed happy during that time, and they went out of their way to share kindness with their fans that waited outside of Sea-Saint Studios.

One of those fans was John Taylor who has written a book, called Wings over New Orleans. It was released just in time for the 40th anniversary of the sessions.

The book starts with the story of how John Taylor met Paul and Linda on the first day they were recording and each day thereafter. He has some nice little antidotes in there that will just put a smile on your face as you are reminded of the true kindness Paul, Linda, Denny, Jimmy and Joe had for their fans in 1975. But John doesn't just have his story in the book. There are other stories as well of fans that met the famous bass player. I especially liked the story of the fan that got a ride into the studio with Paul and Linda and the press thought that she was someone important. When really, Paul had recognized her from being outside the studio and saw her walking and asked if she wanted a ride! Unbelievable! There is another great little story about the McCartney's and the Mardi Gras celebration that you can't miss out on.

The stories only take up a small part of the book. I read the entire book in a half hour. Most of Wings Over New Orleans is full of never before seen photographs of Paul and Linda. These are some photos that will knock you out! And I love that John published ALL the photos. This is something Lizzie Bravo and I have talked about before. Us fans want to see it all. Even if the photo is blurry, or crooked or had a bunch of heads in the photo---we want to see it. And John Taylor left in all of the photo, even the "bad" ones. I love that because it shows a complete story.

Photo by John Taylor and posted with permission

Photo by John Taylor and posted with permission

Photo by John Taylor and posted with permission

This is a must have book if you are a Wings fan, Paul McCartney fan, or someone that likes stories and photos of Beatles during the solo years. I have to say that I believe Wings Over New Orleans is the best new Beatle book of 2015 so far! Don't let this little gem pass you by. You can order it at amazon.com for $11.52 (that is where I got it) .

1 comment:

Definitely looks like a nice book, Sara! And about the photos... I've been having to "retrain" my fantastic designer, who is also a fab photographer, about using 99.9% of my photos in the book... even the ones of John's back! We are only leaving behind the few where you can't recognize the face it's sooo blurred. She has learned to understand us photo addicts...

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Welcome Beatle fans!

This blog is to highlight photos and stories of people who have met the Beatles in person. And while fan taken photos are my favorite, I also like to include vintage fan photos and other photos that show the Beatles meeting fans.

The idea behind this blog is to follow in the footsteps of the great Beatle fanzines of the 1970's & 1980's such as The Write Thing, The Harrison Alliance, With a Little Help from my Friends, Paperback Writer, etc etc. Photos and article from those publications and others are reproduced here to preserve the history of the fans who met one or more Beatle in person.

If you have ever met one of the Beatles and have a story or pictures to share, please contact me, Sara, at Starshyne9@yahoo.com.

I have never met the Beatles (besides in my dreams) but love fan photos. These photos are from my collection, which spans 17 years of online photo collecting and scanning books. I do not claim any copyright of these photos or stories. Some of them are sent to me and published with permission. Others are scanned from magazines, books and found in various places online. I do not watermark photos that I place on this blog because I do not own any of the photos. These photos are on this blog in an attempt to preserve the history of the Beatles. If you own the rights to a photo and wish to have it removed from this blog, please contact me.